Who we are

Two shy woodland mammals discovered that there's nothing that cannot be improved with a lovingly hand-drawn image of a quizzical looking hedgehog or a determined owl. Once they started to see how nice it was working together, they made a few more friends. One had a typewriter and the other had a laptop. It was a very odd bit of woodland, but together they worked to make it all a bit prettier.

Pencil and Paws are Jess (Illustration), Andrew (Graphic Design), and Alex (Writing). We formed a co-op to try and support each other's freelance work, whilst giving our clients, colleagues and friends access to a wider range of creativity. Each of us is a specialist, knowing what is right for our individual field, but we can still put collective effort into making a project work. We think more heads and more skills, with clearly defined roles makes for a great flexible approach to a project.

Jess mostly likes drawing anthropomorphic wildlife, but actually, is pretty good at drawing anything. Her lovely clear line illustrations are what make her stand out, and have been featured on everything from co-op guides to DIY festival posters.

Andrew likes working in print media - posters, flyers, books, magazines – basically anything that is printed on paper. He can create and/or fiddle around with text and images, photos, illustrations and other visual elements to create an overall design. His work ranges from the predominantly visual - a poster with only a few words on it to an entire book with mostly typography and limited visual elements. The short version is that he's great at taking the elements you already have (and particularly Jess's illustrations) and putting them together in a final product that's pleasing, clear and informative.

Alex likes writing. They've done work trying to make words explain everything from the ineffability of music to the mechanics of complex financial instruments. They enjoys trying to make complicated things clear and friendly. They enjoy the process of getting to know an idea, organisation or service, and figuring out the best way to explain it to people. They're happy to work editing content, or creating stuff from scratch to a brief.

If you find that your life could also benefit from some of our creativity then please get in touch.